Text and photographs are © by Ellen Spector Platt & Ellen Zachos, all rights reserved.


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

CLIMBING HYDRANGEA AND OTHER TALES OF WOE

The front entrance to my new apartment building in Exeter NH was flanked by an arbor with 10 huge climbing hydrangea vines, about 20 years old. Gorgeous in full bloom, a home for nesting birds all year, it was welcoming even in winter when the strong trunks had a presence.
Then management in its wisdom decided to redo the entrance to improve drainage, and some landscape architect decided the vines must go.
What's a devastated artist to do except make a collage? Fortunately I had taken many photos of the arbor in both winter and spring, even pressed a few of the leaves and cut some seed heads when I knew it would disappear forever.
 I printed out my best images on  thin, matte, photo paper; then cut out elements from about 20 images and laid some out on a board the way I thought they should go. Notice stone wall on the bottom right.
Then I changed things; one big image that was on the left is now on the right. I also reversed the stone wall...
and glued small bits of real shale scavenged from the construction site to the image of the wall. Parts of the arbor appear in likely places, as do a few pressed leaves.
The wall is almost complete and lo, a flock of birds have returned, singing near the top of the arbor, on bits of dried hydrangea umbels. (click on image to enlarge)
Am I finished? Knowing when to stop is always an art in itself. Maybe I am, or....

3 comments:

BFF Nana said...

Knowing you, maybe you are not! But the collage is quite lovely at this stage.

Ellen said...

I love where and how you've placed the trellis in the bottom right of the collage. It looks like it's reaching right up and out of the frame.

Leeann said...

Beautiful artful homage


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